1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to roller skates and, specifically, to in-line roller skates.
2. Background Description
Conventional roller skates generally employ two pairs of cylindrical wheels, one pair mounted at the toe and one mounted at the heel of a boot or shoe. Each pair of wheels is rotatably mounted on axles secured to the boot or shoe. Due to this construction, the wheels exhibit only fore and aft movement.
Much interest has recently been generated in so-called "in-line" roller skates which include a plurality of wheels arranged axially in-line along the length of a boot. The wheels are attached by axles oriented perpendicular to a frame attached to the sole of the boot. While such in-line roller skates have become quite popular, the in-line arrangement of the wheels still enables only fore and aft movement of the wheels.
It has been proposed to employ balls instead of cylindrical wheels or rollers in order to provide additional degrees of movement of roller skates, particularly, sideways movement. In roller skates utilizing ball rollers, the balls are supported in sockets mounted to a skate frame. Ball bearings are disposed in the sockets for rotatably supporting the balls. However, such previously devised roller skates utilizing ball rollers incorporate only a few ball bearings arranged in one or two lines or races in the sockets. This has resulted in restricted freedom of movement of the balls and high friction levels for the balls. Further, roller skates utilizing only ball rollers provides a skater with little directional control.
Various arrangements have been proposed to increase the directional control of roller skate utilizing ball rollers while providing some degree of universal movement of the roller skate. However, such arrangements require complicated and, therefore, expensive friction enhancing mechanisms or result in a roller skate which is not particularly suited for use as an in-line roller skate.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an in-line roller skate which provides universal movement of the roller skate with directional control. It would also be desirable to provide an in-line roller skate which is simple in construction for a low manufacturing cost.